The Kuro and Tári Adventure Hour
by Davis Johnson
Summary: Kuroahrav, a Draenic warrior, and Tári, a night-elven hunter, with Tári's pet AgGriffopse, a fierce dragonhawk, are bounty hunters in the dangerous land of Azeroth.  Follow their story as they right wrongs, wrong rights, and get paid!


Kuroahrav scanned the stark, mountainous landscape ahead of him, his thick plate armor blunting the biting wind that tore across the field. He slowly turned, using his goggles' built-in binoculars to look in the darkened corners of the walls surrounding the Icecrown Citadel.

"Any sign of him?" His companion continued her own surveillance without looking at him, and Kuro could tell that she was anxious to get this job over with and get in out of the cold.

"I haven't seen anything yet, but - Wait, I think I see something. He was wearing a red cape, right?"

"I think so - If it wasn't red, it was orange or something at least."

"That's him then, over next to those ghouls." Kuro removed his goggles and pointed towards a large gathering of the undead monstrosities, who seemed to be rallying around a central figure. "We'd better get down there before he spots us. The last time I had to clean that undead gunk out of my armor, it damaged my rocket launcher."

"Oh, heaven forbid you have to tinker," Tári teased. "Elune knows you spend enough time on that already."

Kuro turned to look at his night elf companion and regarded her with a level gaze. "I wouldn't need to spend so much time fixing things if you could keep better care of what I make for you," he replied. "Besides," he added with a grin, "I know how much you like coming with me when I mine for materials."

Tári rolled her eyes and gave her draenei friend a playful punch in the arm, and said "I swear that if you make me accompany you on another excursion like that last one, you'll have to find another travelling companion."

"And then who would make you scopes and gadgets? And guns, for that matter?" Tári guiltily eyed her new gun, the object of their last mining trip. "In any case, let's head on down there and finish this. Once we get paid, I'll buy you a drink in Dalaran."

The thought of rest cheering them up, the two adventurers summoned their mounts; Tári casting a spell to summon her ethereal steed sown from the stars, and Kuro deploying his flying contraption hewn from Khorium and other rare ingredients.

"With the racket that thing makes, he'll certainly hear us before we get close; You do realize that, don't you?" Tári's tolerance of Kuro's mechanical hobbies ended with his flying machine - a large, metal thing with several engines, it was loud enough that they usually scared away any local wildlife when they landed somewhere.

"I was thinking I'd parachute into the middle of the crowd to draw their attention while you and Ag start from the back and take out those ghouls," Kuro explained as they flew towards their target.

"All right, but make sure you hold their attention. Remember, I don't do so well when I'm being attacked directly."

"Oh, don't worry, you slight and frail thing, I'll make sure you stay nice and safe." With that, Kuro angled his machine to take him high enough above the clouds that his machine wouldn't alert their target. He wasn't fast enough to avoid a well-aimed boot from Tári, however.

As Kuro drew over the man he and Tári had been sent to kill (a necromancer with considerable skill and an even more considerable bounty), he set his flying machine to autopilot and prepared his parachute. Timing his move, he leapt from the contraption and hurtled towards the man, his plate armor making an eerie whistling noise as the wind blew through the chinks and joints in it. As he drew nearer, he could see that the necromancer was completely unaware, but several ghouls seemed to hear the approach of the warrior. Deploying his parachute, Kuro armed his gloves' built-in rocket launcher and fired a salvo of missiles at the unfortunate beasts and dropped into the middle of another group.

Every undead thing there turned as one to attack Kuro, and the necromancer in their center began launching spells at him. "Go, my minions," he cried. "Tear that fool to shreds! Nothing can stop us now!"

At that moment, a dragonhawk twice the size of the draenic warrior burst through the rear guard of ghouls, where their numbers were thinnest. Tári's could be heard crying over the moans and screeches of the undead, "Sic 'em! Make them fear the names of AgGriffopse and Tári!"

Chuckling as he shook his head at his friend's confidence, Kuro managed to slice his way through to the necromancer at the center of the undead pack. Simultaneously, Ag succeeded in bashing his way through, and the two stood on either side of their foe, leaving him with nowhere to run.

Wordlessly, without giving the sorcerer time to conjure up more reinforcements, Kuro charged the man and swung his blade at head-level. Despite dodging easily, the necromancer's attention was forced to remain on Kuro as the warrior attacked again and again, never giving the other a moment to recuperate. On his other side, Ag harried the man, looking for weaknesses in his opponent, and he was forced to fend off his flying foe with magic.

After a few moments of battle, Kuro realized he had lost sight of Tári and wondered briefly where she could have gone to. Suddenly, a shot rang out, and the necromancer stiffened and fell to the ground, dead with a bullet squarely between his shoulder blades.

Kuro glanced around again, watching as the remaining ghouls crumbled into dust without the necromantic energy they needed to sustain them. He spotted Tári sliding down a hill coming towards him, and called "Oh, I see. You get the final shot in, so you think you deserve the loot?"

His friend calmly replied "Why, of course! You would have been eaten alive had I not shot him when I had - I think that's more than enough justification for my share." Walking past the bemused warrior, she bent over to rifle through the dead necromancer's pockets. "Let's see… Some gold, a few herbs… Oh, here we go!" She pulled off the dead man's gloves. "These will do nicely, I think. Mine are getting worn."

Kuro's response was cut short as the earth heaved beneath their feet and the pair were thrown to the ground. "What in the name of the Light? Tári, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, but I'm going to be bruised in the morning. What was that?"

"I'm not sure - it didn't feel like an earthquake, but with the way we've been getting them lately I wouldn't rule anything out."

"I-" Another quake silenced the hunter as the ground around them seemed to ripple with discomfort. "I don't think we should stay here," she called over to Kuro. "We should get back to Dalaran!"

"Agreed," Kuro responded. As Tári summoned her celestial horse, Kuro hit a few buttons on a built-in control panel in his sleeve to bring his flying machine back down from where it was hovering. They both mounted up and set off to the floating city in Crystalsong Forrest, their feet leaving ground just in time to avoid another bout of shaking. "This can't be natural," Kuro mumbled as much to himself as for anyone.

When they reached the mage's city, the streets were in chaos. Everyone seemed to be just as anxious as Kuro and Tári were to get back to the mainland of Azeroth and find out what was happening, and the portals were a constant stream of activity. "We should get to Stormwind," Kuro called as they flew towards the portals. "If anyone's going to know what's going on, they'll be there!"

"All right, but as soon as we know what's going on I'm going to Darnassus! I want to make sure my family's all right!"

"I'll come with you - we can go make sure the Exodar is safe while we're out there," replied Kuro. As they drew closer to the portals, they could immediately tell something was wrong.

"The portals are starting to fail!" The cry came from someone in the crowd, and almost immediately the crowd began to stampede. Kuro and Tári shared a glance, and both flew straight for the Stormwind portal, passing over the heads of the frantic populace below. As they entered the magical gateway, Kuro could feel the fabric of the spell wavering, and was glad to pop out on the other side unharmed. As he emerged, he glanced back to see Tári materialize behind him immediately before the portal faded away into nothing.

He was still staring in mild shock at where the portal used to be when a voice from across the room drew his attention. "Oh, Light! What the hell is that thing?"

Kuro sprinted over with those few who weren't already pressed against a window and looked outside. The Wizard's Sanctum, the receiving end of the Dalaran portal, was one of the highest structures in Stormwind, and therefore afforded a clear view of the wall of fire that was seemingly advancing on the city. Activating his binoculars, Kuro shouted "There's a dragon at the head of that thing!"

Every voice in the room was silenced as their owners strained to see if the draenei was right. As the wall grew closer, Kuro cried "That has to be the single largest dragon I've ever seen! It's even bigger than the aspects!"

The wall of fire grew steadily closer, and the dragon suddenly swooped upwards. The beast came plummeting back down, and landed squarely on top of the gates to Stormwind City, dwarfing even the mage's tower Tári and Kuro huddled in. "Deathwing," one mage spoke hoarsely. "This dragon can be no other than Deathwing! He's come to take revenge on us!"

Kuro could do nothing but watch as the great dragon roared, knocking down one of the statues that lined the walk to the city. The beast drew itself up and flew away, leaving smoldering footprints behind. He began to let out a sharp breath when suddenly a thunderous cracking noise sounded. The crowd which had stared in horrified awe as the great dragon visited their city rushed to the opposite side of the tower, towards the noise.

As Kuro and Tári watched in stunned silence, the city's park, largely caught on fire, began to shift. "It's the cliff face," someone cried. "The heat is cracking it!" Slowly at first, picking up speed, the entire park district began to sink into the ocean. Buildings fell from the face they used to rest on, and as the shelf drew closer to the water it crumbled entirely, and bits of the city fell into the ocean, sinking quickly below.

In absolute shock, Tári turned to Kuro, who was almost as taken back by what had happened. "What was that thing?" The question was laced with fear, and it was enough to bring Kuro back to himself.

Before he could answer that he had no idea, the same mage that had named the dragon before stepped forward. "That dragon can be no other than Deathwing, the Destroyer of Worlds! He feels we have wronged him, and he's come to take revenge!" A frantic light shone in the mage's eyes, and Kuro could tell that he was close to becoming hysterical.

Grabbing the mage by his robes, Kuro shook him lightly and forced him to look into his own face. "Mage," he said. "What is going on here?"

"Deathwing is returned," the mage rasped out. "And none of us are safe."


End file.
